For their Climate Connections series, NPR reports on an engineer who created the first methane power plant to provide an alternative to coal to fill the country’s energy demands:
Coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels. It is responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions in China. So the country is trying to modernize its coal-fired power plants to make them cleaner and more efficient, reducing emissions.
One way is to use captured methane gas, a natural byproduct of coal mining.
Huang Shengchu, an engineer, adopted the idea a decade ago. It gave rise to the country’s biggest methane power plant — and one of its best tools in its fight against climate change.